The Wi-Fi On the Bus

theodp writes "For students who endure hundreds of hours on a school bus each year in a desert exurb of Tucson, the Wi-Fi on the bus improves the ride. Last fall, school officials mounted a $200 mobile Internet router from Autonet Mobile to bus No. 92's sheet-metal frame, enabling students to surf the Web. What began as a hi-tech experiment has had an unexpected result — Wi-Fi has transformed the formerly boisterous bus rides into a rolling study hall, and behavioral problems have virtually disappeared. 'Boys aren't hitting each other, girls are busy, and there's not so much jumping around,' said J. J. Johnson, the Internet Bus driver."

Comments

New?

[ockancc1701]

So what is novel about this, the WiFi on the bus, or the fact that it is a school bus? Internet access is getting more and more widespread, this was only a matter of time. http://www.oxfordtube.com/wifi.html I used WiFi on a bus to Oxford two years ago.

Why Take Laptops to School?

[TheStonepedo]

I graduated from college in the winter of 2006. With the exception of the computer science department, very few college students needed personal laptops at school.
Why should primary or secondary school students lug laptops from home to school and back when most schools have controlled computer labs and most towns have public libraries? The complexity and cost of distributing and maintaining laptops seems unnecessary.
Laptops and per-bus wifi seem like an expensive way to lessen the dullness of trips to and from school.